On December 1, 2006, a new federal law went into effect requiring schools, businesses, and other organizations to archive all e-mails, instant messages, and other digital communications produced by employees. Preserving Paper and Electronic School Records, an information brief published by the Virginia Department of Education, offers suggestions on how divisions should attend to records retention and is located at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/OET/info_brief_records.pdf . Divisions should ensure that all data systems can archive data based upon requirements established by the Library of Virginia. Please contact your division’s records management specialist for additional information on the Library of Virginia requirements. The Educational Technology Plan for Virginia 2003-09 requires divisions, as a representative action,to maintain networks that utilize data-recovery software.Divisions must work with technology providers to conduct periodic security audits and develop security policies and procedures that meet their needs. Production databases should be tested periodically for recoverability, according to requirements for their use and preservation. Divisions should consider the backup of metadata along with data. Production databases that support mission-critical applications should be recoverable to a point-in-time and point-of-failure. Databases requiring 24/7 availability should have a high-availability strategy, such as failover, mirroring, and/or online backups.
The Educational Technology Plan for Virginia 2003-09 requires divisions, as a representative action, to maintain networks that utilize data-recovery software. Divisions must work with technology providers to conduct periodic security audits and develop security policies and procedures that meet their needs. Production databases should be tested periodically for recoverability, according to requirements for their use and preservation. Divisions should consider the backup of metadata along with data. Production databases that support mission-critical applications should be recoverable to a point-in-time and point-of-failure. Databases requiring 24/7 availability should have a high-availability strategy, such as failover, mirroring, and/or online backups.